Touch of Finland

Hygge for sale

Michigan is home to more Finnish Americans than any other state in the country, with scores of Scandinavians settled in the Upper Peninsula. Makes sense—they hack the cold without complaint. Those strong Finnish roots are on full display at Touch of Finland in Marquette. The 35-year-old shop stocks an odd (and sometimes tacky) assortment of souvenirs including Himalayan salt lamps, Marimekko dinnerware, Yooper bumper stickers, and hoodies sporting the Finnish flag.

But look closer and you might uncover a pretty bamboo wash bucket, sisu syrup (made with wild blueberries), or birch bark dishcloths. Our own made-in-Finland haul included salty licorice, shampoo spiked with honey and Arctic cloudberries (which, after using, we wouldn’t recommend because it smells really weird), spicy tube mustard, and smoky tar soap (perfect for the Finnish sauna we don’t own). We even picked up a bar of Belgian egg-white face soap and boxes of Paine’s balsam fir and cedar incense from Maine—which, if you’ve burned this stuff before, you know is the greatest, most hygge scent on earth.